The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to manipulate user interface objects on a display.
Exemplary manipulations include activating one or more virtual keys to enter characters or activate functions. A user may need to use virtual keys in a file management program (e.g., Finder from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), an image management application (e.g., Aperture or iPhoto from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a digital content (e.g., videos and music) management application (e.g., iTunes from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a drawing application, a presentation application (e.g., Keynote from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a word processing application (e.g., Pages from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a website creation application (e.g., iWeb from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a disk authoring application (e.g., iDVD from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), or a spreadsheet application (e.g., Numbers from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.).
But existing methods for creating, displaying, and using virtual keys are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, going back and forth between hiding a virtual keyboard with virtual keys to make more room on the display for other content and un-hiding the virtual keyboard in order to activate virtual keys is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods for creating, displaying, and using virtual keys take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.